They sit close together on a rock ledge.
Bible in art · Matthew
The Two Marys Watch the Tomb (Les deux Maries observent le tombeau)
James Tissot · 1886–1894
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Two women sit on a ledge in a rocky hollow, close together, wrapped in their mantles: one in white and grey, the other in a dark veil and a striped dress. They look out towards the tomb in the evening.
Above them, on the top of the hill, stand the three crosses, empty now against a grey sky. Tissot left most of the sheet to the pale, worn rocks.
From the text
- “Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb” (Matthew 27:61)
- Joseph rolls a great stone across the entrance of the tomb and goes away (Matthew 27:60)
The artist’s own
- The empty crosses on the hill above
- The women sitting in a hollow of the rock
Details
The two Marys
The crosses
Three empty crosses on the hilltop.
A tree
A dark tree on the ridge.
The rocks
Pale worn stone fills the foreground.
James Tissot, French, 1836–1902. Brooklyn Museum, New York (Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.326) · Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper · Brooklyn Museum (Commons file page, «Permission»): "This image was uploaded by the Brooklyn Museum as a content partnership, and is considered to have no known copyright restrictions by the institutions of the Brooklyn Museum." — "No known copyright restrictions".